08/10/2026
🌹 Introducing Our Bread & Roses Campaign 🌾
More than 100 years ago, in the winter of 1912, over 20,000 textile workers—many of them immigrant women—walked off the job in Lawrence, Massachusetts after their wages were cut. They weren’t just fighting for enough money to survive. They were fighting for dignity, respect, and a better life for themselves and their families. Their struggle became forever known as the Bread and Roses Strike.
The phrase “Bread and Roses” reminds us that working people deserve more than just enough to get by.
Bread represents the basics every worker should be able to count on: fair wages, good benefits, safe workplaces, and economic security.
Roses represent everything that makes life worth living: dignity on the job, time with family, opportunities to grow, joy, respect, and the ability to thrive—not just survive.
That message is just as powerful today as it was in 1912.
At SEIU Local 205, every contract we negotiate, every member we organize, every workplace we improve, and every victory we celebrate is about winning both Bread and Roses for working people across Tennessee.
This campaign is about honoring those who came before us while continuing the fight for those who come after us.
Because workers deserve more than survival.
We deserve Bread. We deserve Roses. And together, we’ll keep fighting until every worker has both. ✊💜
